Dublin, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Carbon Credits Market for Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use – A Global and Regional Analysis: With Focus on Emerging Startups, Policy Framework, and Country-wise Analysis – Analysis and Forecast, 2025-2035” has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The burgeoning carbon credits market compels agribusiness conglomerates and input suppliers to recalibrate their investment portfolios. Leading seed and fertilizer manufacturers, such as Corteva Agriscience and Nutrien, now allocate substantial R&D budgets toward carbon-smart products (e.g., low-tillage seed coatings, nutrient-use-efficiency inoculants) that qualify for soil carbon protocols.
The companies that are profiled for the carbon credits market for agriculture, forestry, and land use have been selected based on thorough secondary research, which includes analyzing company coverage, product portfolio, market penetration, and insights gathered from primary experts. The carbon credits market for agriculture, forestry, and land use comprises key players who have established themselves thoroughly and understand the market, accompanied by startups looking forward to establishing themselves in this highly competitive market.
In 2024, the carbon credits market for agriculture, forestry, and land use was dominated by established players, accounting for 78% of the market share. In contrast, startups managed to capture 22% of the market. With the increasing focus on adopting more sustainable solutions across various industries, more players will enter the global carbon credits market for agriculture with each passing year.
Equipment OEMs such as John Deere and AGCO deploy telemetry-enabled, banded-application fertilizer rigs and high-clearance air seeding implements that reduce soil disturbance by up to 80%. These machines integrate directly with carbon quantification platforms (e.g., Project Carbonview), automatically logging reduced-till passes and residue cover metrics to verifiers. By embedding carbon-credit eligibility as a native feature, operators streamline third-party audits, shrinking verification timelines from 90 days to under 30 days and capturing incremental returns of $10-$15 per acre, effectively lowering the breakeven cost of precision equipment by 8-12 %.
Grain handlers, ethanol producers, and food processors are increasingly conditioning offtake contracts on verified carbon attributes. Major cooperatives such as CHS and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have instituted “carbon differentiated basis premiums,” paying farmers an extra $0.50-$1.00/bushel for corn delivered with chain-of-custody carbon certificates. To enforce traceability, these buyers integrate blockchain-anchored ledgers powered by providers such as Xpansiv and Persefoni that reconcile registry retirements with physical grain loads in real-time.
Such frameworks reduce double counting risk and allow processors to report carbon-neutral products to end markets, fetching 5-10 % price premiums in Europe and North America under voluntary labeling schemes. Industrial stakeholders, from agrochemical giants to multinational grain traders, have been leveraging carbon-credit portfolios as a strategic hedge against emerging compliance regimes and border adjustment measures.
Removal Project Segment to Dominate the Global Carbon Credits Market for Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use (by Application)
Removal-focused initiatives have surged to the forefront of the carbon credits market for agriculture, forestry, and land use sphere because they lock carbon into soils and biomass indefinitely rather than merely averting future emissions. Techniques such as deep-rooting cover crops, biochar soil amendments, and integrated agroforestry not only sequester CO2 but also bolster soil fertility, yield stability, and ecosystem diversity, qualities that satisfy stringent permanence requirements and attract price premiums of 20-30 percent over avoidance credits.
The advent of high-resolution satellite imagery and AI-enabled soil-carbon modeling has slashed MRV expenses and accelerated audit timelines, further enticing corporate buyers who need demonstrable, long-lasting offsets for their net-zero commitments. As regulatory regimes such as the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation increasingly reward genuine removals, removal-centric projects will continue to command the lion’s share of AFOLU credit demand.
Forestry Segment to Witness the Highest Growth between 2024 and 2035
The forestry segment is set to outpace other AFOLU categories from 2024 through 2035 due to its superior per-hectare carbon-sequestration potential, well-established measurement methodologies, and strong demand from corporate net-zero programs. Recent enhancements in remote sensing and LiDAR-based forest-growth modeling have slashed verification costs by up to 30%, making large-scale reforestation and improved forest management projects more bankable.
Simultaneously, regulatory tailwinds, such as the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation, explicitly prioritize long-lived, nature-based removals such as afforestation, driving premium pricing (+15% vs. the VCM average) and long-term offtake contracts from major industrial emitters. Moreover, forestry projects deliver co-benefits (biodiversity, watershed protection, community livelihoods) that align with evolving ESG mandates, further reinforcing forestry’s dominant growth trajectory in the voluntary carbon credits market for agriculture and land use.
Asia-Pacific led the carbon credits market for agriculture, forestry, and land use in 2024 owing to a convergence of large-scale farming operations, ambitious corporate net-zero targets in China, Japan, and South Korea, and rapidly expanding government “carbon farming” incentives. In China, agricultural subsidy reforms under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs tied payments to soil-carbon sequestration pilots, unlocking hundreds of millions of dollars in project investment; meanwhile, Japan’s Farm Carbon Offset Program and South Korea’s Green New Deal both mandate voluntary agriculture offsets for key industrial sectors.
Cost-competitive yields in emerging markets, where baseline emissions are higher and sequestration potential is vast, have driven a 38% year-on-year jump in AFOLU credit issuance, while digital MRV platforms have slashed verification timelines from months to weeks, further accelerating uptake. These factors have positioned Asia-Pacific as the fastest-growing region, outpacing both North America and Europe in volume and value growth.
Demand Drivers and Limitations
Market Demand Drivers: Achieving Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Goal by 2050
Corporate net-zero commitments by 2050 have rapidly escalated demand for high integrity agricultural, forestry, and land use (AFOLU) credits. Unilever, which traces a significant portion of its emissions to agricultural supply chains, has already cut its direct and energy procured emissions by over 70 % since 2015 and aims to eliminate the remainder as soon as 2030. To bridge the gap between internal reductions and absolute neutrality, multi year purchases of soil-carbon and forestry credits from projects in Latin America and Southeast Asia are being locked in.
Apple, having achieved operational neutrality in 2020, has committed to full value chain neutrality by 2030; its Restore Fund channels nearly USD 280 million into conservation and reforestation schemes in Brazil and Paraguay, specifically targeting durable removals. Luxury group Kering, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, has been reducing Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 90 % versus 2015 levels by 2030, underpinning this ambition with nature based credit procurement. Ingka Group (IKEA) likewise plans to halve its value-chain emissions by 2030, signaling significant AFOLU credit offtakes to offset residual emissions. These urgent net-zero roadmaps effectively convert corporate sustainability pledges into real-world demand for AFOLU carbon projects, driving market growth and underpinning project finance.
Market Restraints: Land Tenure Uncertainty and Registration Delays
Land tenure uncertainty and registration delays undermine the foundational eligibility of agricultural, forestry, and land use projects for carbon credit issuance. Development protocols across leading registries, such as Verra’s VM0042 for Improved Agricultural Land Management, mandate that project proponents demonstrate clear, legally recognized rights to the land through freehold ownership, long-term leases, or equivalent statutory titles registered with national land authorities.
In many regions of Africa and Latin America, however, customary land tenure systems coexist alongside statutory regimes, creating ambiguity over who holds formal rights. Project developers often spend six to twelve months, or longer, securing and validating lease agreements or negotiating title clarifications before even applying for registry listing. This protracted pre-registration phase delays credit issuance and escalates transaction costs, eroding project IRRs and deterring smallholder aggregation models that rely on streamlined onboarding.
Market Opportunities: Blockchain Tokenization and Retail Access
Blockchain tokenization has been revolutionizing access to carbon credits for agricultural, forestry, and land use by transforming traditionally illiquid, registry-bound offsets into programmable digital assets that can be traded 24/7 on open markets. Through tokenization, each carbon credit, originally issued as a registry-managed certificate, is “bridged” onto a blockchain network and minted as a fungible or non-fungible token.
This process enables fractional ownership, on-chain retirement, and real-time proof of provenance, while smart contracts automate compliance with registry rules and retirement protocols. As a result, buyers can transact in smaller lots, participate directly in carbon credits market from retail wallets, and verify retirement status instantly via public ledgers. By lowering minimum trade sizes and bypassing cumbersome bilateral negotiations, tokenization opens carbon markets to a broader retail investor base, individuals, family offices, and SME buyers while maintaining the high-integrity standards required by registries.
Key Attributes:
| Report Attribute | Details |
| No. of Pages | 149 |
| Forecast Period | 2025 – 2035 |
| Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 | $8.8 Billion |
| Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2035 | $67.07 Billion |
| Compound Annual Growth Rate | 22.5% |
| Regions Covered | Global |
Market Dynamics
Drivers
- Achieving Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Goal by 2050
- Digital MRV Protocol Harmonization
- Carbon-Linked Agricultural Finance and Insurance
Challenges
- Land Tenure Uncertainty and Registration Delays
- Carbon Permanence and Reversal Risk
Opportunities
- Blockchain Tokenization and Retail Access
- Blended Finance Structures (Grants + Equity + Debt)
Company Profiles
- Indigo Ag, Inc.
- Carbon Credit Capital, LLC.
- Terra Global Capital
- South Pole
- Nori, Inc.
- The California Air Resources Board
- Cargill, Incorporated
- Regenerative Agriculture Alliance
- Ecosystem Services Market Consortium
- Bayer AG
- 3Degrees Group, Inc
- NATUREOFFICE
- Climetrek
- EKI Energy Services Ltd.
- Finite Carbon Corporation
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/127iex
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